Credits

A group of filmmakers created the Leave No Soldier documentary.

Donna Bassin, Ph.D.Director, Producer & Co-Writer

Donna Bassin, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist, psychoanalyst, professor at Pratt Institute, award-winning fine art photographer, member of the “Vietnam generation” and first-time documentary filmmaker. Buddy and the Monster, a short fiction film, which she wrote and produced in 1975, was created to help children cope with psychiatric hospitalization.

While Leave No Soldier is Donna’s first documentary film, her expertise as a mental health clinician, specializing in grief and mourning, provided unique access to various communities of war veterans. She consulted with the Mayor’s office of New York City following 9/11 to assist the mourning process of the victim’s families. After that experience she committed herself to take her psychological expertise out of the consultation room into the community. Donna has won a number of awards, including the Gradiva, for her contributions to mental health through the arts. In addition to having an active psychotherapy practice in New York City and publications in many professional journals, she currently exhibits her work in museums and galleries.

Every director owes a great debt to the creativity, story-telling ability, and point of view of their editor. Her editor, and her older son, Ari Bassin-Hill provided all this, as well as the perspective of one coming of age during the war in Iraq.

As co-founder of Rustic Media, Jamie produces and art directs digital content ranging from short documentaries, commercials and music videos to feature films. With a group of darn awesome folks, Jamie's work is rooted in social impact, creative strategy and design thinking.

Ari Bassin-Hill was born in New York City’s East Village. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he received degrees in Film and in Folklore Studies. After graduation, Ari returned to New York and was fortunate enough to work with, and learn from, award-winning directors Barbara Kopple, Marco Williams, Deborah Shaffer, and Danny Anker. He loves nothing more than a spirited debate and a lazy Sunday.

Eddie Martinez graduated with honors from the SUNY Purchase film program and immediately started working as a cinematographer, shooting numerous films including the Sundance award-winning feature What Alice Found also selected by the Tribeca Film Festival. Wishing to look deeper into the social inequalities of urban communities, he studied at Harvard's Graduate School of Education as a Gates Millennium Scholar, earning a master's degree in education and social policy. Upon returning to New York, Eddie began producing educational and promotional videos for non-profit organizations, taught film production to Bronx and Brooklyn teenagers and embarked on several social issue and education- related feature length documentaries.

Currently Eddie is shooting, editing and co-directing To Be Heard with Oscar and Emmy winning director, Deborah Shaffer. He is also the cinematographer and an editor for Rachel Is, a portrait of a family's struggle to find a home and independent life for their mentally retarded daughter.

Adrian started his career in sound as a boom op, assisting his older brother Eddie Martinez in his student films for Purchase College. After almost a decade, Adrian has progressed to working on short narratives as well as feature length documentaries with Donna Bassin and Academy Award winner Deborah Shaffer. When he is not expanding his resume, he is certainly diversifying it, pursuing a career DJ’ing. He has produced mix tapes, mash-ups, and is currently appearing on several tracks, scratching for some of New York’s up and coming producers. In his spare time, Adrian writes poetry, skateboards, cycles and enjoys spending time with his family and friends.

Timothy J. Anderson is a composer, sound designer and audio engineer who has worked in the New York area for the last 15 years. He has worked in many venues on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, and No-Where-Near Broadway.

Most recently Timothy has been mixing audio for TV. Shows include: ‘Chasing Classic Cars’ for the Discovery Channel, Seasons 8-10 of ‘A Baby Story’ for TLC, ‘Macy’s Unwrapped’ for the WE Network, ‘Inked’ for A&E, ‘Rebuilt’ for the Discovery Channel, ‘Town Haul’ for TLC, and numerous pilots and specials for various networks. He teaches audio postproduction to MFA candidate computer animators at NYU and the School of Visual Arts.

Sam Brouse is a singer and songwriter for the internationally acclaimed rock band Papadosio. He studied music theory at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY and currently resides in Asheville, North Carolina. He is constantly perusing his passion of composing music for film both on and off tour. Papadosio's tour schedule can be found at www.papadosio.com.

Neil Benezra is a native New Yorker who has lived in 4 of the 5 boroughs. In addition to his work mixing sound for film and television,Neil has toured the world as a sound designer with acclaimed artists, including Richard Foreman, Joan Jonas, Louise Bourgeois and On Kawara. As a composer and musician he has worked with Joey Ramone, sound artist Stephen Vitiello and longtime Swans guitarist Norman Westberg among many others.

In the past 5 years Neil's Audio Post Production studio - Brooklyn Sound Society - has worked on award winning films and television programs that have been included in over 100 international film festivals and 100 international broadcasts programs, including BMW, TLC, Discovery, Disney among others.

Emma Joan Morris is an Emmy Award winning producer/director/editor whose work includes the feature documentary Something Within Me, winner of the Audience Award, Film Makers Trophy and a Special Grand Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Morris completed Shut-Up and Sing, a feature documentary on the music and politics of the Dixie Chicks. Her other editing credits include the Academy Award winning documentary Close Harmony, and A Stitch for Time, which received an Academy Award nomination. She has edited films for all of the major networks including HBO, PBS, A&E, CBS, ABC, NBC and Discovery Channel.

Peter EdmondsonAssociate Producer

Amy Bassin’s film credits include, Co-Producer of her first documentary, Leave No Soldier and Associate Editor for Swimmers, a film screened at Sundance. She has also worked in digital photography, video, drawing, painting, and interaction design. Amy has done interaction design work for companies such as Kellogg’s, UNAIDS, The National Cancer Institute, Perdue Farms, M&Ms, Skittles, The Financial Times and won a nomination for a 2006 Webby Award, and won two W3 web awards. Her video and film awards include: "The Experimental TV Grant," (in collaboration with Donna Bassin) and Leave No Soldier was a nominated as a finalist for "The Roy Dean NY Film Grant.”

Amy has exhibited her fine art work at The Fine Arts Museum in Long Island, Ars Electronica, The School of Visual Arts, and received an Artists Space/Artist Grant. Amy earned her BFA from the School of Visual Arts in NYC and currently lives and works in Long Island City, NY.

Claudia Vianello, Co-Producer, has more than 25 years in film and video production. Since completing a Ph.D. program at the University of Michigan and a Fellowship at the American Film Institute, Claudia has worked as an independent producer and senior consultant with Fortune 500 and non-profit companies. In the 80’s she was writer and associate producer for the Academy Award nominated documentary El Salvador: Another Vietnam and co-producer of award-winning documentaries Atomic Artist and Troupers. In 1998 she co-produced the independent feature Row Your Boat with Jon Bon Jovi. She has received 4 Telly Awards from the International Film and Video Association. Currently she is a partner in Catalyst Media Productions, a strategic communications consulting and production company.

Kirk’s award-winning cartoons have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and hundreds of other newspapers and magazines throughout four continents.

His cartoons have prompted stockholder protest of corporate policy, have been debated on talk radio and in newspaper columns, orchestrated into classroom lessons and Congressional presentations, reprinted in hundreds of books, appeared on national newscasts, and chosen for exhibitions at the Warhol Museum and elsewhere.

Kirk's 20 years of cartooning include eight years as the staff editorial cartoonist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and two years freelancing a weekly quarter page feature to the Minneapolis Star Tribune opinion page. He has also illustrated book covers, and contributed animation to documentary films. He currently lives in St. Paul with his wife Nancy Brewster and two invisible friends, Winky and Mr. Tithers.

Harry is a true multimedia graphic artist and animator. His work has been seen on national television on a daily basis for almost 20 years. He has worked on television, film, radio, publishing, Internet, and corporate projects through his design company, Realize Design.

Harry is currently the Senior Designer/Animator at Access Hollywood, the syndicated entertainment news program, now in its 12th season. Before Access Hollywood, Harry brought his design expertise to nearly every other entertainment news program including E! Entertainment, Extra, and Entertainment Tonight. Other shows and networks that he has contributed to include Hard Copy, The Leeza Show, Dr. Phil, The Wayne Brady Show, NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX and Comedy Central. He has also contributed to international projects as a Designer/Manager at the multi-Emmy Award winning design studio, Novocom. Harry has shared his design knowledge as an instructor with the UCLA Extension program and as a speaker at the Art Institute of California-Los Angeles. Harry lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife, two daughters and Cooper, their Goldendoodle.

Born in 1969 in Ontario, Canada, Michael Julian Berz grew up with his brother. They and their mother split their time between Austria and Germany. At twenty, he attended Universität Wien, where he studied journalism as well as political science. In August 2001, he became a correspondent for Austrian television, reporting on and filming arts and culture programs from New York City. Michael began documenting the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers within hours of the event. He worked with filmmaker Deborah Shaffer who directed the film From The Ashes--Ten Artists and co-directed From The Ashes--Epilogue, a profile of ten downtown artists and their experiences on September 11. The films were presented at many sites in America and Europe, including Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah; Global Peace Film Festival 2002, Orlando, Florida; Diagonale 2002, Graz, Austria; Tribeca Film Festival 2002 and 2003, New York; and Unplugged: Art as the Scene of Global Conflicts, Ars Electronica 2002, Linz, Austria.

Bill Hovard, a graduate of California College of Arts & Crafts, has 20+ years experience as a Designer and Creative Director. He began his career in San Francisco’s Bay Area and then gained invaluable experience working in Italy where he created recognized designs for leading fashion and retail brands.

Deborah Shaffer, Producer/Director, began making social issue documentaries in the early 1970’s. In 1979 she made the labor history documentary THE WOBBLIES (NY Film Festival). During the 80's, Deborah has focused on war and human rights in Latin America, directing NICARAGUA: REPORT FROM THE FRONT; WITNESS TO WAR (Academy Award, PBS); FIRE FROM THE MOUNTAIN (NY, Sundance, POV); and DANCE OF HOPE (Prix d'Or - FIPA, Cannes; Sundance; Best Documentary - Valladolid).

Deborah was one of the first filmmakers to work in post-Sept. 11 New York City. FROM THE ASHES - 10 ARTISTS (Sundance, Tribeca, Cinemax) captures the impact the attacks had on 10 downtown NY artists, followed a year later by FROM THE ASHES – EPILOGUE (Tribeca). She is the Executive Producer of ASYLUM, (Sundance, Human Rights Watch, Best Documentary - Aspen Shortsfest, Academy Award nomination.) She has directed numerous programs for public television, including LADIES FIRST: THE WOMEN OF RWANDA (Emmy Award, Sigma Delta Chi Award, Cine Golden Eagle) and was recently awarded the Irene Diamond Lifetime Achievement Award by the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Deborah is currently in production on two documentaries: Journey to Freedom, about a unique pair of American rescuers during WWII, and To Be Heard, about a poetry writing workshop for at-risk teens in the South Bronx.

Glenn SilberConsultant

Glenn Silber has been a producer/director of award winning documentaries for 30 years. As an independent producer in the late 1970s & 80s, Glenn co-produced and directed several feature documentaries, including the Academy Award-nominated films The War At Home and El Salvador: Another Vietnam. Glenn also produced and directed The Great American Bailout for Frontline and the Center for Investigative Reporting -- which received the George Polk Award for National Television reporting in 1991.

After his years as an independent producer, Glenn spent the next two decades at CBS News and ABC News working as a staff producer for a number of prime time TV News magazines including West 57th & Street Stories at CBS; as well as 20/20 and PrimeTime for ABC News.

While producing for the prime time broadcasts, Glenn’s work won numerous awards, including an Emmy Award for the West 57th news magazine story, “Homeless in America: Suffer the Children” with Meredith Viera.

Fran Bartkowski teaches at Rutgers University-Newark. She is the author of Feminist Utopias, University of Nebraska Press (1989), and Travelers, Immigrants, Inmates, University of Minnesota Press (1995). She is the co-editor with Wendy Kolmar of Feminist Theory: A Reader, McGraw-Hill (2004). Kissing Cousins: A New Kinship Bestiary is in press for September 2008. She is also working on a novel, An Afterlife. Fran has published poems and articles in various journals, and occasional essays in The New York Times.

Jan Barry is a poet and writer. He was a co-editor of “Winning Hearts & Minds: War Poems by Vietnam Veterans” and a co-founder of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Appointed to the US Military Academy after a stint in Vietnam, he resigned from West Point to become a writer and peace activist.

He is a recipient of several journalism awards, including the 2003 Community Service Award from the Society of the Silurians, the oldest press club in the United States. He was a member of an investigative project team at The Record (Bergen Co., NJ) that received the 2006 Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment; the 2005 IRE Medal, the Investigative Reporters and Editors' top award; the Society of Professional Journalists' 2005 Sigma Delta Chi Award for investigative reporting; and the New Jersey Press Association's 2005 public service award.